The Christian’s relationship with any nation-state is fraught with tension and difficulty: presenting oneself as an obedient subject while maintaining a greater loyalty to God and the Kingdom of Jesus. This challenge is all the more complicated in the United States of America, a representative republic. How can we most effectively serve Jesus in America?
Life is full of challenges, difficulties, trials, and moments of distress and pain. We can go on and pretend these types of things do not affect us. Or we can lament our failures, trials, and distress, and live in healthy faith.
Christians in America enjoy many blessings and opportunities, but America also provides temptations toward idolatry. Join Adam as he warns against some specifically American forms of idolatry.
It’s a term we hear all over the place anymore. People are trying to be “spiritual” but not “religious.” Even as people seem to question Christianity, “spirituality” remains popular. But what is “spiritual”? To what does it actually refer? Is it always good, healthy, or positive?
Christianity is considered a “faith.” Within Christianity and society we hear a lot of talk about “faith.” Is faith incompatible with science and other disciplines? What is the faith? What about our faith? Join us as we discuss faith as category, object, and subject.
Jesus was to establish His church, and the gates of hell would not prevail against it (Matthew 16:18). And yet there is so much confusion in the world today about the church. Can we still perceive the Church of Christ? The Scriptures provide a way.
The Nature of the Church: Perceiving the Church of Christ
We like to imagine we stand above the fray. In reality, we are strongly influenced by those around us…for evil or for good.
Christians are to follow Jesus’ commands (Matthew 28:19, 1 John 2:6). Well and good. But how? Jesus embodied God’s purposes. The Apostles appealed to the examples of the past and their own example. God has instructed us not only in word but also through example; we do well to observe the power of example.
The Hebrew author expected his audience to have already matured beyond elementary principles (Hebrews 5:11-6:3). Why did he have that expectation? Why must we mature in Christ?
Maturing in Christ: Its Necessity
It is easy to associate “assembly” with “Christianity,” but is there not much more to Christianity than the assembly? How shall we view the assembly in terms of the greater life we live as Christians?
The Assembly and the Christian Life